Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to an air bag module. More particularly, exemplary embodiments relate to an air bag module having pockets provided at both side panels of an air bag and having internal horizontal tethers provided inside the pockets.
Discussion of the Background
Generally, a vehicle includes an air bag apparatus, which is a safety apparatus for protecting passengers by expanding an air bag cushion with gas introduced from an inflator at the time of a vehicle accident.
The air bag apparatus may be equipped at several portions of a vehicle, if necessary. As the air bag apparatus, there have been proposed a driver air bag apparatus equipped in a steering wheel to protect a vehicle passenger which is seated in a driver's seat; a passenger airbag apparatus equipped at an upper portion of a glove box to protect a passenger seated in a passenger seat; a curtain air bag apparatus mounted along a loop rail to protect a side of a passenger; etc.
These air bag apparatuses each include an inflator that generates gas, and an air bag cushion connected to the inflator to be expanded and unfolded while being introduced with gas to protect a passenger.
An air bag that has been currently developed uses various kinds of tethers. The air bag includes a vertical tether positioned at the front of a main panel, an internal horizontal tether connecting air bag side panels to each other, a cross tether connecting the internal horizontal tether to the vertical tether, and the like. The existing tethers have been used to improve a shape of the air bag or improve a flow of the airbag after the air bag is unfolded.
The existing air bag tethers, however, fail to sufficiently address limiting the movement of a vehicle passenger at the time of a head-on collision of a vehicle, and thus, have a minimal injury reduction effect. The existing tethers also fail to address limiting the movement of a vehicle passenger at the time of an oblique collision of a vehicle, thereby failing to prevent undesirable separation of a vehicle passenger from the air bag cushion.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.